Future Learning: Sal Khan

Can geometry and physics be truly fascinating to students without gimmicks like rap songs? Sal Khan believes they can. Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit with a new model for helping kids learn. Focusing on his philosophy about on-demand, project-based learning, Khan shares his vision about what the future of education could look like, and how we can help students self-direct their pursuit of knowledge.

I think that the flipped classroom is an interesting idea if you want to do learning that is largely based on presentation. You use presentation outside of the classroom. Then you do your understanding of the presentation and further steps from the presentation inside the classroom. I think it is a step forward. It is still, in my mind, the old person. It’s still starting with presentational learning and then trying to sprinkle some learning-by-doing on top of it. I am interested more in moving beyond the flipped classroom to learning by doing at the center than a kind of the intermediate step that still centers on largely on tacit assimilation.

Educators should always continue to evaluate the efficacy of an adopted model of instruction. This goes for Flipped Class, Inquiry, lecturing, Unschooling, or whatever educational model you use. I have been a teacher for 12 years, and I have modified my instructional practices every year based on my own reflection, feedback from students and emerging educational practices.

He goes on to caution that the flipped classroom is way of thinking about learning...and teaching, rather than a specific way of doing things, that are reliant on specific technologies.

Jackie then provides a detailed step-by-step example that shifts away from the didactic presentation model to one that focuses "on the students’ personal experiences, interactions with other students, and acquisition of tangible life skills". Well worth having a look at, as it has some really practical hints (including the use of mobile devices), as well as images of the students participating in the activities.

THANKS for linking to this lively conversation about a critical topic. Education is in transition like all other areas due to advances in technologies. The many comments reveal far more facets than could have ever imagined. My concern is that the boat is sinking as revealed by high school drop out rates and not ready for college. ALL aid would seem welcomed. When the price is free and results are stunning then adjust. There is a need for teachers but not as the only source of knowledge. This seems to relate to the shift of the center of gravity from the teacher to the student driven. The sage on the stage needs to become the coach on side. These kinds of lessons with project based learning and eportfolios is the wave of the future. So learn new ways to dance.

"But the skepticism about Khan Academy isn’t just a matter of wealth or credentials of Khan or his backers. It’s a matter of pedagogy. No doubt, Khan has done something incredible by creating thousands of videos, distributing them online for free, and now designing an analytics dashboard for people to monitor and guide students’ movements through the Khan Academy material. And no doubt, lots of people say they’ve learned a lot by watching the videos. The ability pause, rewind, and replay is often cited as the difference between “getting” the subject matter through classroom instruction and “getting it” via Khan Academy’s lecture-demonstrations.

But that’s the crux of the problem right there: lecture-demonstrations. Although there’s a tech component here that makes this appear innovative, that’s really a matter of form, not content, that’s new. There’s actually very little in one of the videos that distinguishes Khan from “traditional” teaching. A teacher talks. Students listen. And that’s “learning.” Repeat over and over again (Pause, rewind, replay in this case). And that’s “drilling.”

In April this year, Sylvia Martinez in her Generation Yes blog published these four hard-hitting posts looking specifically at the Khan Academy, but also at the teaching of mathematics education. She sets out to explore some of the myths around maths education, and to indicate why Khan Academy is not the panacea it may sometimes appear.

I hear a woman that has been working with many ethnic minorities in her church for years. They got a computer lab recently with eight computers. At first it was a disaster because all these people could do was go online. They had no guidance to useful websites. Then an interactive educational program that has been proven all over the globe in the mission field was put into the computers. The leader said for two hours they were absorbed in the interactive lessons. That is another case in point that when the materials are well designed and then improved with field testing they get the job done.

Here is a man on the front edge of how technology is transforming education. In this video he briefly describes his expectations for the future. Go to Khan Academy to see how he has been transforming learning for a few years http://www.khanacademy.org/about One of my coworkers is taking PhD classes in statistics. She is very intelligent but struggled with the lectures and textbooks. It was his free videos on You Tube about advanced statistics that allowed her to do well in the course. Also there are thousands of 10 minute videos there for all things from beginner math to algebra to calculus and biology, physics, finance plus much more.